Bryan Chevrie writes...

Bob:

I'm an aquarist with lots of questions. I'm setting up my first saltwater aquarium, I've had a freshwater planted tank for over a year with lots of success. I've read several books on the subject some of which were Natural Reef Aquariums, by John Tullock, The Reef Aquarium vol. I, by Charles Delbeek and Julian Sprung, Protein Skimming & Activated Carbon Secrets, Live Sand Secrets, and Water Quality guidelines for Marine Aquariums by you and recently The Captive Marine Aquarium by Wayne Shang that you recommended in FAMA. All of these are excellent books, so as you might guess I have a lot of knowledge, I just lack the experience in saltwater aquariums. I have a 46 gallon bow front tank with a 10 gallon sump in the cabinet both are open top. The sump houses a Pro Clear Aquatic Skimmer with a 200 gal/hr pump, Rio 1700 pump with 4ft of head, Ebo Jager Heater 200 watt, and 8 lbs of left over Tonga live rock. In the tank I have a plenum make with 50 lbs of Seaflor Special grade and 45 lbs of Seaflor Fiji Pink substrate, I then have 55 lbs of Tonga live rock. For water movement there are 2 Power Sweeps that moves 160 gal/hr and 1 Power Sweep that moves 270 gal/hr, all three are plugged into a natural wave maker. As of now there are two 36 inch 10,000K bulbs and one 36 inch Actinic 03 bulb, but I will build a custom hood that will be hung above the tank that will contain two 400 watt MH and four 36 inch 30 watt Actinic 03 bulbs and LED moon lights. The only additives I have added were Marc Weise Bacter Vital and Coral Vital LSB per directions on bottle and everything seems just fine. Before I bought the products I went to there web site and looked at there products and when I was done I was sold and now I wonder if these products are any good or did I waste my time and money. I'm vary excited about this tank and I want to set it up right and I can't afford to spend money on trail and error. By the way it took me about two months to get to the point I'm at, so as you can tell I'm not trying to rush this and get animals in there as soon as possible. I do have a list of fish and inverts I would like to house in this tank. I wanted to base the tank around a pair of clownfish and it's host, I really like the True Percula Clownfish but I'm having trouble getting information on the host anemones and there requirements. Other tank mates I would like to have are a Sailfin Blenny, Six Line Wrasse, 2-3 Neon Goby, Yellow Tang and several small crabs and snails. I wanted to have a few species of Acropora and or Montipora coral, several clams and maybe a soft coral or two. My million dollar question is beside the basic (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, alkalinity and calcium) what should I be testing for and if I need to make changes what additives do I use and what manufacture products do I buy. I read so many different options I'm not sure what I should be doing, some say calcium is the only thing to worry about others say to pay attention to strontium, iodine, and magnesium I now have Seachem basic and reef special test kits and if found that some the test are vary time consuming. I don't yet have a calcium test kit and would like to know of a good brad to buy and the best type and brand of calcium additive to use, I was thinking to a 2-part additive and maybe the aragonite solution you talked about. I would be vary grateful on any help and guidance you may be able to give me and if I'm doing any thing that is not good please let me know. Thank you very much for your time.

Thanks,

Bryan Chevrie